The Grudge - Review.

Well, now that you mention it, I DO have a grudge, and it too will never forgive. Forgetting, however, will be a snap. When I saw the preview for The Grudge (www.doyouhaveagrudge.com.) I thought, "Hmmm. That looks like it has the same qualities as The Ring. I'll go see it."

I was right in one respect, it has some similar qualities, to wit:

1. Chick with long black hair is dead and pissed.
2. Blonde chick is trying to find out why.
3. People die.

The similarities end there.

Katherine, (Sarah Michelle Gellar - Why does she need to use all three names?) is in Japan with her boyfriend, Doug (Jason Behr). Both are students and Katherine works in a day nurse position at a hospital. She gets sent to a house to substitute for another day nurse (Yoko) who hasn't shown up for work. Mainly, because Yoko is dead - which is really going eat into her sick leave. The deaths continue when the old woman, that Katherine is supposed to be taking care of, is killed by the aforementioned chick with the long black hair. Thus the quest for why the dead girl, and her mutant cat-boy son are pissed begins.

From there the movie gets divided between a series of flashbacks that explain all of the events that are occurring in "current" time. Eventually they culminate in showing the initial event that created the supernatural "Grudge."

The atmosphere of the movie just wasn't scary. Instead, it seemed to drift from one startling, but very predictable, movement or noise, to the next. Even the face of the chick with the black hair, looked more like a plain white Kabuki mask than the monster she was supped to be.

And for some reason that I cannot fathom, the Director (Takashi Shimizu) chose to have the chick with the black hair, make a sound that mostly reminded me of Booger's award winning belch in "Revenge of the Nerds." The movie is full of annoying sounds actually, including a tinkling bell that rings constantly. It was so annoying that the dead girl even stopped it once.

Plot-wise this movie was pretty thin. Nothing in it gave the movie the air of suspense that made "The Ring" so creepy. I had hopes that maybe the end would at least contribute in some small way to prop up the hour and a half that I already watched. Alas, the second that I saw the start of the ending scene, I knew exactly what was going to happen. Believe me, you will too.